His [1] world of imagination stirs mine

As creations of the mind emerge behind the curtain

Beyond a city alive with sky-scrapers

Twinkling in pollution's haze

Penumbras of mid-autumn explosions [2] into the night-sky

As I find my place in the circle of life

Leonine and regal [3] on my rock

While the country behind the hills descends

To pounce on our virtual world mesmerised electronically

Along the MTR [4] flowing beside a hundred islands

Of make-believe in the future world.

Look beyond the borders outside the box

Controlled by a politburo

With just ten in a hundred believers [5]

In a sea of post-modern non-belief

Ardent to blend their world with ours

Finding their place with no strings attached [6],

Dried out sweat-shops poised for global conquest

Where commerce takes precedence

And values can follow suit

Into the wonderland of a mad hatter's tea party

Set up for someone not yet there.

But step into my other world

Of a million soldiers [7] geared up and ready

To serve beyond the glitz

Submerged below the surface of human knowledge

Screened from vision by exclusion

Behind the curtain of the production line

Of lower intelligence and reduced dexterity [8]

Outcasts of society on Main Street

Leftovers of play awaiting recycling

In downtown's red-light district [9]

Preparing for a future world in a sea of faith.

Cartoon characters [10] step into our world

Hugging the person at the next table

Unknown and unmasked

Unconditionally accepted in the silence of a moment

Created commercially in parallel

With the joy resulting from a blend

Of imagination and fact -

The certainty of the one known in faith [11]

Who takes his place at our table

Momentarily seen without the camera

But known and loved beyond the future. [12]

Hong Kong

6/10/06

[1] Walt Disney

[2] China's mid-Autumn Festival fire-works - 6/10/06

[3] Simba from The Lion King

[4] Mass Transport Railway - but we arrived by car!

[5] China has one of the fastest-growing Christian communities

[6] China's resistance to foreign control

[7] The Salvation Army

[8] We'd visited TSA's Sheltered Workshop (Shatin) the previous day

[9] TSA prayer the previous weekend had focussed on Sexual Trafficking

[10] Mickey and Minnie Mouse et al

[11] CS Lewis  (the Narnia man) defined faith as imagination with reason

[12] The Emmaus experience (Luke 24)